12 games you might never play

Are they dead? Our gaming triage separates the development deaths from the minor colds

Above: Jade Empire was a critical success, praised for its combat, graphics, characters and rare RPG story on the Xbox

So is the rumored sequel coming? In a 2006 interview about Mass Effect, Casey Hudson of BioWare mentioned an “unannounced next generation game.” Last year, Jade Empire was released for download as an “Xbox Original,” indicating that the game still holds some interest. So is this unannounced project actually Jade Empire 2? It seems plausible, but then again, there’s already a ton of games to look forward to from BioWare, and Jade Empire 2 is probably not at the top of their priorities. We’d honestly rather they focused on Mass Effect 2.

“In related news, Fox's plans for the development of the previously announced Firefly MMOG have been delayed, but Fox looks forward to continuing its collaboration with Multiverse on this endeavor.”

That’s the word, and it’s at the bottom of a 2008 press release about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMO. What does it mean? Vaporware. Everyone knows that “delayed” is the business term for “never in a billion-trillion years will this game be released,” especially when placed at the bottom of a press release for a game that will also likely never exist.

Above: All Joss Whedon wants is an MMO!

Ok, maybe it’s not that dire, but the game was announced in late 2006, and there has been no official reference to it since. There is, however,a very sad fan sitededicated to the game that will probably never be.

Prey, a 2006 sci-fi FPS developed by Human Head Studios, actually ended with the line “Prey will continue.” The game’s sequel was announced in the game itself – that’s pretty confident. There was no secrecy to begin with – publisher 3D Realms confirmed that the sequel was in development immediately after the game was released.

Three years isn’t an absurd development time, especially considering that the original Prey was announced in 1997 (nine years from announcement to release), but usually we’d have seen a press release, a screenshot, a teaser or something by now.

A 2007 firedestroyed part of the building which housed Human Head Studios’ office, but there was no indication that development of Prey 2 was affected. Venom Games, the developer who ported Prey to the 360, was closed last year, but again, there was no indication that this affected development or that they were even involved. This is largely because… we don’t know who’s developing it.

Radar Projects, the company in charge of the sequel, lists Prey 2 as one of its projects, but lists the developer as “unannounced.”

Above: Prey’s physics-defying puzzles weren’t the most refined ever, but the game was at least innovative and fun

Maybe we’ll see it at E3? We hope so. While not necessarily a landmark game, the series has a lot of potential (if you played it, you were thinking with portals before Portal), and we want more.